by Lainey Reese
He felt everything in him shift focus to her, the beast in him raising its head in interest. “Leave the shirt open?” he asked with one brow arched.
She smiled, big and sweet. “Deal.”
Chapter Ten
Two days later, Ashley was doing something she never in her wildest fantasies would’ve dreamed she’d be doing with a man. She was cataloging poop. She was bent over a laptop entering in dates and categories and size and weight and even the consistency of each poop sample they had. If it hadn’t been so disgusting she would have thought it was interesting. As it was, she had a scented candle at her elbow and still had to bury her nose in her shirt every five minutes. It could be worse, she supposed, she could be the one who was actually touching it.
She looked toward Jake for the millionth time with her nose wrinkled in revulsion. “I’m gonna throw up.”
He chuckled, not looking up from the microscope and his current sample. “No, you’re not.” His voice glided up her spine and melted her insides along the way. “You get past the ick factor and it all comes down to the science of it.”
God, she thought, the man was adorable even when he was talking about poop. There went those professor fantasies again.
“Did you just say ick, Dr. Eagle Feather?” she teased, and Poncho snorted from his station on the other side of the table. “Is that a technical term? You trying to impress me with all those foot-long words you learned in college?” That finally got him to look up and meet her eyes. He winked then went back to work. She tried not to be charmed and failed.
They had turned her kitchen table into a science station with each having their own space and duties. The men had a microscope and a very cool set up of slides, trays, petri dishes and sealed containers. They separated, smeared and did all manner of science-y things. To poop. Ashley shuddered, thinking that even with the butcher paper they’d laid down she was going to bleach her table. Twice.
“Ashley,” Poncho said, “tell us why you stay up here all alone in the winter.”
“Well,” she said, saving her data before sliding the computer back and earning chuckles from both of them when she slid the candle into the computer’s place right in front of her. “I used to love to be around other people. But, well, my mom died when I was ten.” They stopped and looked at her, she shrugged and evaded eye contact, not prepared to meet the compassion and pity that always greeted that statement. “Cancer. We went from hospital to hospital. There was two years of her being sick before she lost the fight. I got pretty sick of crowds.”
She fiddled with the label on the candle, lost to the memories. ”I used to be pretty outgoing and wild, I guess. Mom always said I’d never met a stranger. Seemed like my parents were always yelling at me to settle down and sit. Up until then, that is. After that, well everyone was a stranger. Just another sad but smiling stranger telling me to be brave and that everything was going to be ok.”
With a mental effort that she didn’t know they could see, she forced herself to get it said and done. “Well, after that I hated to be around people. My dad’s a long-haul trucker and for a while he took me on the road with him. I loved it. Of course, I needed to go back to school eventually. So, he worked out a deal with me. During the school year I’d live with my Gran and Aunt LuLu and then I’d get to spend summers on the road with him. It was magic.”
She smiled, remembering those summers of endless road, all the sights and the comfort of being just with her daddy. “So, that’s why I hate crowds and why a whole three months a year without seeing another living soul is my idea of heaven.” She looked at them finally, her eyes dry.
“You know this place was supposed to be my mom’s. Her grandpa left it to her. It didn’t have the cabin or anything. It was just raw land but my Mom and Dad would bring me up here to camp when I was little, and Mom would talk about retiring here someday. In a big log cabin.” No longer able to stand sitting still, Ashley pushed up from the table and went to the kitchen, “Anybody else want tea?” she asked as she ran water into the kettle.
She jumped when Jake’s arms came around her. Damn stealthy Indian, she thought with an inner smile. She sighed then and relaxed into the comfort he offered.
“So, how long did it take to get this place up and running?” he asked with his chin nestled on her shoulder.
“Umm,” she was losing the tension now that he was holding her, “About three years.”
“Must’ve cost a fortune,” Jake said conversationally.
“Yeah. Water, septic, electric, not to mention the building and clearing.” Just thinking about it made her cringe. “But, Mom had life insurance and Dad saved it for me. He wanted us to have this. He spends winters here when he can. He’s only missed one other than this.”
Jake kissed the tender spot just behind her ear and whispered, “Why did he miss this year?”
“I think he’s got a girlfriend and doesn’t want to tell me.” She smiled and thought of Pat, the petite brunette with big bedroom eyes and a rear end that her Daddy couldn’t stop staring at whenever they visited her diner. She hoped so. He deserved to be happy again.
“So, tell me again what we hope to learn from all this poop?” Ashley asked, heading back to her spot at the table.
“We learn a lot, Slim,” Poncho answered, stretching his arms wide and rotating the kinks out of his neck. “Like we know now why they’re so damn big up here.”
Ashley gave him big eyes. “Really? You know that now? Just from poop?” Jake chuckled and tugged on her hair as he went back to his station and answered her.
“It’s called scat, Slim, although I don’t mind hearing you say poop like that.” When she blushed and shrugged he continued, “Cougars are generally smaller here than they are closer to the Equator. Their size is in direct correlation to their food source. It’s call MWVP. Mean Weight of Vertebrate Prey. Putting it simply, it means that the larger the prey, the larger the cat.”
He looked at her with that professor intensity again and she couldn’t help but get caught up in what he was saying. “They are opportunistic hunters. They’ll eat any meat they can catch. And what they are catching on your mountain is some big-ass elk and moose. That makes for some seriously big cats.”
Chapter Eleven
Jake walked into the bedroom he now considered his and closed the door behind him. He shook his head ruefully with a smile as he started to undress. The girl was always leaving doors open in her wake. As he toed off his shoes, he looked toward the bathroom where he could hear the shower going. It was actually a trait he was growing to love. He stood in the doorway naked and watched through the wavy glass door as she ran her hands over her body. He now considered that his too.
He was content to watch for the moment. She was lovely, all wet and her image blurred by the glass. As her hands ran over her arms and legs he felt a welcome curl of desire start to build. When those hands smoothed over her flat stomach and cupped her breasts, it curled a little tighter. She had her neck arched and her delicate fingers were squeezing and sculpting the mounds with a firmer and firmer grip.
Jake swore in a harsh whisper when those hands slid in a straight, sure line between her thighs and her whole body jolted. She had no idea that he was there watching. He should have let her know, but he was mesmerized by her beauty and by the soft moans that he could hear above the rush of water. Her fingers on one hand glided in and around the folds between her legs. All the while her other hand caressed and squeezed the mounds of her breasts. She was as beautiful as any mythological creature in that moment, and he felt blessed by the gods just to be standing there.
He held back until she was almost there. He came into the bathroom on silent feet and left a packet of condoms within easy reach of the shower. Her movements getting rougher, her sighs sharper. Just when he judged she was going to go over, he stepped in behind her. He didn’t give her time to be embarrassed or surprised, he just plastered his body to her back and slid his hands over hers. He groaned at the feel of her
core gripping and contracting against not just his fingers, but hers too. He kept her rhythm, using her hands trapped under his and pushing her beyond everything but the need for release. He ran his open mouth up her neck. “God, you are so fucking hot. You have no idea what it did to me to see you like this.” He groaned, almost overcome when the next clench of her sheath gripped him even tighter, “Do it. Do it, baby. Come, come—now. Ah, fuck yeah. That’s so good, baby. God, you feel so good. Again.” He started pumping again, needing her next release as much as he needed his next breath.
He almost fell over when Ashley told him no and wrenched away. Ashley sank to her knees in front of him. All thoughts abruptly left his brain. She knelt, wet hair plastered in golden ringlets across her shoulders and her mermaid eyes gazing up at him. When she spoke, it was with a smooth and sultry voice he’d never heard from her and the sound just as much as the words themselves went straight to his cock. “You watched me, now let me watch you.” Her candy-pink tongue flicked out and teased the straining head of his shaft and she said, “C’mon, Doctor. You’ll be my first. I’ve never seen a man touch himself before.” Then she closed her luscious lips around the head for one magnificent second before she pulled back.
Jake wanted to check to see if he was dreaming. This so closely resembled a number of fantasies he’d had about her. Without taking his eyes off her enthralled expression or her delectable body, he wrapped a tight fist around his shaft and stroked.
She was an avid audience, watching every move he made. He could tell it was making her as crazy as he had gotten when he’d watched her. She was starting to sway her hips in time with his strokes and whenever a drop of pre-come would seep from the tip she’d give a little moan and lick her lips. It was making him insane.
Soon, it seemed it was too much for her to stand and the next drop of fluid that came forth she licked away with her tongue. He groaned, so turned on by her that he wasn’t going to last, but he wanted to. He wanted this to go on forever. She kept licking. Little whips with just the tip of her tongue on the ultrasensitive nerves just under the head, and broad flat sweeps across the entire mushroom-capped top with the whole of her tongue. Over and over, hard, soft, fast and slow she licked and lapped while he stroked. She even leaned closer and licked around his fingers on the shaft. Her tongue slid between the digits to dab at his straining flesh.
Her hands were fisted on her thighs and she was moaning as loud as he was, it was erotic as hell and he said, “I’m coming, Ash. God, baby, here it—argh.” She kept going and the sight of his seed pouring in hot white waves across her puffy pink lips and bright pink tongue made him shout and quake. The orgasm was like a series of lightning strikes that ripped through his cock.
After the last shudder left him, he reached out and grabbed a handful of her hair. “Close your eyes,” he ordered in a hoarse whisper as he tilted her head back into the spray. While water rained down her face, he used his other hand to wash away the evidence of his desire. His fingers traced over every delectable inch of her, from hairline to chin until he swore he’d be able to recognize her by feel alone.
“Open,” he said, voice still raw with passion. When she did, his fingers slid in to tickle and stroke the tongue that she’d used so well on him. “That was the single, hottest damn thing I have ever seen in my life, Ashley.”
Her lips closed on him and she smiled while she nipped his fingers. “Ditto, Doctor.” With a playful growl, he hauled her to her feet, then crowded her against the wall. The kiss she gave him was every bit of fire and need he was feeling, and he knew just what to do about that.
“Turn around,” he said as he turned her himself. “Bend over, mmm, that’s pretty,” he murmured as she followed his instructions and folded forward from the waist. He ran his hands in smooth strong strokes from the rounded moon of her ass cheeks to her shoulders and back. “More, that’s it. More. Put your hands on the floor. Keep your knees locked and legs straight.” He groaned at the picture she made. “God, that’s perfect. Don’t move.” He grabbed the showerhead from the wall and cranked up the heat.
So far the water had never gone cold on them and he hoped like hell it held for what he planned. He adjusted it to the soft pulsing multi-spray. Six soft jets of water lightly caressed her lower back as he slowly worked large ovals from her dimpled rear to her shoulders and back again. He knelt behind her and ran them over first one leg then the other. Ankles, calves, behind the knee where he knew she was ticklish, over her toned thighs and then on to the next. After that he let the pulsing jets caress her luscious upturned ass, but was very careful not to let even one jet hit the part of her that wept for attention.
He turned up the heat as well as the power of the massaging heads and did it all again. Covering every inch of her while she panted and moaned and stayed right where he wanted her. This time, when he was done with her legs, he let the water hit right where she needed it, for five torturous beats before he took it away. Ashley yelled and tried to stand straight. He stopped her with a hand on her ass and a quiet command to hold still. “I’m not finished,” he said. “Not nearly finished.” Then he turned it up again. Ashley groaned, but he wouldn’t be swayed form this.
Her legs were quivering, and her arousal was so strong he could smell her when he finally brought the water to her slit. He didn’t want her coming just yet though, so he switched it to the lightest setting and made sure it rained around her puffy lips but stayed clear of her clit. It was swollen and ready and he knew the lightest touch would send her over. She started cursing him.
He smiled grimly and cut the heat. As the water turned icy on her overheated and ultrasensitive flesh she yelped. She barreled up to her tiptoes and braced her hands on the wall in front of her.
Smack!
He slapped sharply on her ass. “Down, Ashley.” He almost thought she would turn and punch him, but she didn’t. With a sexy little whimper she got back into position. It was hot as fuck seeing a strong woman relinquish control like that and he had to take five deep breaths for control before he could get back to his task.
He placed the setting to a single fat stream this time. It was still soft, but it was pulsing and he kicked up the heat just as he placed it on the skin right under her tightly puckered back hole. She clenched everywhere, and her hands fisted on the floor. He let her suffer for ten soft pulses then, slowly, one pulse at a time, he brought the water down. Over the lips, her mons, and with his free hand he spread the delicate folds open so he could trace her opening. She was mindless, her clit so swollen it looked ready to burst. He smiled grimly and kicked up the power even more. Hot, hard and pounding, the showerhead at full force, he finally brought it to her clit and almost came himself at her scream. It was guttural, animal and endless as she came and came and came.
Jake wasn’t nearly finished. He stood up, keeping hold of the showerhead, and cursed the whole time it took to work the condom on. Then he rammed into her full force. She was still in the grip of her orgasm and the rhythmic compressions of her core sucking at him ripped a shout from his chest. He started to thrust into her, hard and deep. Over and over he plunged, hanging on to his control by the teeth.
Ashley was still yelling, hoarse and begging, mindless with the buildup and it made him feel like a beast. Trying to keep it together, to keep her pleasure rocketing, he brought the showerhead back up. Highest setting, one fat hard pounding river of hot water and he directed it right on her back passage. This time when she screamed and came, she took him with her. Her body fought and pushed into his in her climax with such force he felt like he was riding a tornado. It was the most unbelievable orgasm of his life.
Like the town drunks, they staggered to their bed. Both of them damp and neither of them cared. Ashley took one minute to kiss him and swear to make him the best breakfast of his life in the morning and then passed out like she was indeed drunk. Just before oblivion claimed him, he let himself bask in the glow of knowing that he’d just blown his lover’s mind. He even gave himse
lf a light-fisted tap to his own shoulder then let sleep take him.
Chapter Twelve
Homemade blueberry pancakes. Thick-sliced bacon. Fluffy scrambled eggs. Fresh-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits and crispy fried potatoes. Ashley only wished she could make more. She’d slept like the dead all night and woke up with such a full-body glow she was surprised there weren’t little pink hearts and tweeting bluebirds circling her head.
All morning long she kept suffering mini heart attacks as flashbacks from the night before played in her mind. How his hand looked as he stroked and pulled on his shaft flashed and she had to stop and take a deep breath for control. She’d felt such an overwhelming sense of power when he’d shouted and come. The feel, the sounds, the taste as each hot ribbon landed across her lips and face. Ashley shuddered with an echo of pleasure. It had been indescribably sensual.
What had happened next went beyond anything that she’d ever imagined. Just as a quiet shimmer of reaction was fluttering through her body—just as she remembered the feel of that water pounding against her rear, Poncho walked in.
Ashley couldn’t help but blush when Poncho did nothing but stare at the table in open-mouthed awe. She knew they’d been loud. It was a solidly built house, but still, she was hoarse this morning from the screams Jake had wrung from her. If he said anything about it she didn’t know what she’d do. She was a grown woman, and wasn’t embarrassed about her sexuality, but really, she’d never in her life screamed like that before.
Poncho, God bless him, took pity on her, “This looks too good to be true. I must be dreaming.”
Then Jake came in and wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Nope. No dream.”